<html>
   <head>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
   
      <title>Chapter&nbsp;1.&nbsp;Overview</title>
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="corpstyle.css" type="text/css">
      <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.65.1">
      <link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The eSvn User Manual">
      <link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The eSvn User Manual">
      <link rel="previous" href="pr01s03.html" title="Checking for new versions">
      <link rel="next" href="ch02.html" title="Chapter&nbsp;2.&nbsp;Getting Started">
   </head>
   <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF">
      <div class="navheader">
         <table width="100%" summary="Navigation header">
            <tr>
               <th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter&nbsp;1.&nbsp;Overview</th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
               <td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pr01s03.html"><img src="common/navig/prev.gif" alt="Prev"></a>&nbsp;
               </td>
               <th width="60%" align="center">&nbsp;</th>
               <td width="20%" align="right">&nbsp;<a accesskey="n" href="ch02.html"><img src="common/navig/next.gif" alt="Next"></a></td>
            </tr>
         </table>
         <hr>
      </div>
      <div class="chapter" lang="en">
         <div class="titlepage">
            <div>
               <div>
                  <h2 class="title"><a name="esvn-overview"></a>Chapter&nbsp;1.&nbsp;Overview
                  </h2>
               </div>
            </div>
            <div></div>
         </div>
         <p>
                  <span><b class="application"><span><b class="application">eSvn</b></span></b></span> is a <span class="acronym">GUI</span> front end to <span><b class="application">
                          <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/" target="_top">subversion</a>
                        </b></span> (<span class="acronym">SVN</span>), a version control system developed by the <a href="http://www.tigris.org" target="_top">Tigris</a> community of Open Source developers. For those who
                  are familiar with <span><b class="application">
                          <a href="https://www.cvshome.org/" target="_top">Concurrent Versions System</a>
                        </b></span> (<span class="acronym">CVS</span>), <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span> is
                  <span class="acronym">CVS</span> without the wrinkles, complexity and inefficiency of
                  <span class="acronym">CVS</span>. Since <span><b class="application"><span><b class="application">eSvn</b></span></b></span> is a front end application
                  it relies on having <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span> installed.
         </p>
         <p>The main purpose of <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span> is to be a file server that
                  provides revision control services for a given tree of folders and the files they contain.
                  Users can work in two ways with the file system, they can:
         </p>
         <div class="itemizedlist">
            <ul type="disc">
               <li>
                  <p>access files directly over the network, or</p>
               </li>
               <li>
                  <p>checkout a copy of the files to their local machine</p>
               </li>
            </ul>
         </div>
         <p>Both methods enable users with the right permissions to perform common operations such as
                  create, modify, delete, copy, move. The difference between a normal file server and a
                  <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span> server is that a <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span>
                  server tracks and logs all changes to the repository and keeps copies thereof. The advantage
                  of this is that multiple users can have simultaneous access to the file system. Each user can
                  make changes and commit them back without overriding each other work. All users can identify
                  the most up-to-date version of a file and access older versions If required.
         </p>
         <p>A <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span> server is therefore suited to managing files that
                  are frequently changed and developed over time by a group of users. The server acts as the
                  main focal point of the user effort and is therefore a collaborative environment. Everything
                  that is done to the files must be saved back to the <span><b class="application">subversion</b></span>
                  server in order to be made available to all the other members of the group.
         </p>
      </div>
      <div class="navfooter">
         <hr>
         <table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer">
            <tr>
               <td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pr01s03.html"><img src="common/navig/prev.gif" alt="Prev"></a>&nbsp;
               </td>
               <td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="index.html"><img src="common/navig/up.gif" alt="Up"></a></td>
               <td width="40%" align="right">&nbsp;<a accesskey="n" href="ch02.html"><img src="common/navig/next.gif" alt="Next"></a></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
               <td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Checking for new versions&nbsp;</td>
               <td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html"><img src="common/navig/home.gif" alt="Home"></a></td>
               <td width="40%" align="right" valign="top">&nbsp;Chapter&nbsp;2.&nbsp;Getting Started</td>
            </tr>
         </table>
      </div>
   </body>
</html>